For the 2012 season, U.S. consumer spending on Christmas decorations was projected to be $6.9 billion dollars and expected to grow by 3.4 percent during the holiday season 2013. In line with the growing number of dollars spent on decorations is also the growing number of articles on how to store holiday decorations. Primary research has unveiled that some consumer collectors of particular holiday items such as the ceramic or pressed paper and cardboard Christmas village sets either keep the village pieces out all year long or unpack them every other year due to the cumbersome task of assembling the village and taking it down each year. Despite the increase in consumer holiday decoration spending dollars, some retailers expressed that selling holiday décor can be a challenge due to direct consumer comments of storage problems. Retailers are also concerned about the amount of retail space required to display particular items (particularly three-dimensional objects and structures).
Typical pop up assemblies, like those used in cards and books, traditionally have an extended gatefold base which extends beyond the footprint of the structure. The structure is positioned along the center line with the walls of the structure glued to the base. When the pop up structure is in a closed position, the extended base is folded along a center line and the structure is folded flat between the sides of the base and is therefore hidden from view. When the base is opened, it pulls on the walls of the structure and pushes up on a vertical center support attached to a horizontal spreader which folds out the walls and makes the pop up structure stand up. The extended base must be held in open position or the pop up will collapse shut. To close the pop up, the extended base is folded shut such that the center support pulls down the spreader allowing the walls to fold closed. The pulling and pushing of the spreader during opening and closing causes stress on the paper walls and, for this reason, the center support requires reinforcement or it will bend or tear over time and use. For this reason, tabs are usually added to the center support and the tabs are folded back and glued to the center support to provide reinforcement and stiffness.
To accommodate the attached walls of the structure and keep the pop in the open position, such prior art pop up structures utilize a large extended base which must be held in the open position by the user (or by placing the structure on a flat surface and applying weighted items on the base ends to hold the extended base in the open position). Otherwise, the elastic nature of the materials will tend to pull the base into a closed position along the center line causing the center support to move downward and fold the walls.
Another drawback of prior art pop up structure is that when the structure is in closed position it is entirely hidden from view by the extended base. This creates is a problem for consumers who must rely on photographs of displays in order to determine the indicia and other design amenities of the structure prior to opening (or purchasing). Further, the consumer may not want an extended base but rather have a pop up structure which can stand alone on a shelf or otherwise be hung from a line. The extended base also prevents the user from displaying several pop up structures adjacent to one another as there must be room to accommodate the base of each structure. While there are a variety of foldable stand-alone structures (made of card stock or other materials) which may lay flat when disassembled and otherwise be pieced together into a three dimensional stand up structure without an extended base, such assembled prior art structures are not pop up structures in that they cannot be easily moved between a closed substantially flat position and an open three dimensional position without constructing and deconstructing the structure. For example, a prior art structure having multiple panels and base may be constructed to stand alone or deconstructed to fold flat, but it does not move easily between the two positions without considerable effort on the part of the user.
Examples of prior art pop up structures which do not use the extended base approach include that described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,418,384 (First Inventor Jin, granted Apr. 16, 2013) as a pop up musical greeting card using a top extended center support mechanism to activate a musical sound module and/or lights when in the open position. While this design eliminates the problems associated with the extended base, it requires that the center support member (or mechanism) to protrude outward and extend away from the structure. This protruding extended support is not aesthetically pleasing or consistent with the design theme.
Again, the disadvantages of the prior art pop up structures are numerous in that they either rely on an extended base which must be held open and/or a protruding extended support member which is unsightly. Such extended bases or protruding members require additional space to display and to store. They do not allow for the user to view the exterior aesthetic features of the structures when in the closed position because they are covered by the extended base or card cover when closed thus making it difficult for a user to sort and/or identify items folded flat in a box or other container. They have limited lighting options because lighting must be made small enough to allow the structure to fold flat when in the closed position and/or there is no accommodation in the center support or base to allow a tea light or other larger lighting object to be placed in the structure. The lighting option described in the Jin patent (identified above) is particularly limited in size and duration of light (lasting only 10 to 20 seconds in the open position), and cannot be easily replaced. In fact, most prior art pop up structure designs make no accommodation whatsoever for internal lighting. Those relying on candles tend to be a fire hazard because there is no accommodation within the center support structure or base to hold the light away from flame. The very nature of most prior art designs, which tend to collapse unless the extended base is held open, is unsafe for use with open flame. Those relying on temporary battery powered lighting are limited by space within the structure.
What is needed is a stand-alone pop up structure (or “assembly”) which does not rely on an extended base or protruding extended support member and which alleviates other disadvantages associated with the prior art.